The use of tire chains on the drive wheels of vehicles is desirable for drivers who need to drive on snow or ice laden roadways. (Here the term “tire chains” has reference to all types of add-on traction devices, e.g. cable type as well as link type tire chains.) Such tire chains traditionally have been designed to withstand severe abuse and as so designed has been available and in use for decades. More recently, however, certain types of vehicles have been designed with less clearance at the inner side walls of the tires (as mounted on the vehicle) and the somewhat hefty design of the traditional tire chain does not have sufficient clearance to allow mounting of those chains onto the vehicle tires.
This predicament has resulted in new tire chain designs to enable such vehicles to be equipped with the desired supplemental traction. One new chain design simply reduces the components of the device in size. This results in a weaker chain that is more likely to fail and, upon failure, can cause undesirable damage and potential injury. Another type is a claw type that provides resilient gripping fingers that fit over the tread but no other securement is provided at the inside of the tire. Such devices are expensive and prone to being dislodged from the tire, again with unsatisfactory consequences.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a tire chain design that is of the more conventional type, i.e. secured at both the inside and outside of the tire, accommodates the lesser clearance but without sacrificing strength and integrity of the chain.